Incredibly bad first quarter for biz magazines in ad revenue, pages

TALKING BIZ NEWS EXCLUSIVE

Every single business magazine reported a decrease in first-quarter advertising revenue and advertising pages, according to data released Wednesday by the Publishers Information Bureau.

Among the largest declines was Wired magazine, which saw a 50.4 percent drop in ad revenue to $10.2 million and a 57.2 percent drop in ad pages to 113.14 during the first three months of the year.

Inc. magazine also had a huge drop, falling 62.1 percent in ad revenue to $6.8 million and 46.7 percent in ad pages to 89.89.

Among the bigger business glossies, BusinessWeek fared worst, dropping 37.2 percent in terms of ad revenue to $33.9 million for the quarter and 39.8 percent in ad pages to 258.79.

In comparison, Fortune dropped 24.1 percent in ad revenue to $37.9 million and 26.3 percent in ad pages to 316.39, while Forbes fell 8.8 percent in ad revenue to $55.6 million and 15 percent in ad pages to 428.7.

Overall, the magazine industry experienced a 20.6 percent drop in ad revenue and a 26.1 percent decline in ad pages for the quarter.

Business magazines that outperformed the industry include The Economist, which experienced a 10.9 percent decline in ad revenue to $27.9 percent and an 18.8 percent drop in ad pages to $484.96. In addition, Entrepreneur saw just a 7.4 percent drop in ad revenue to $23.6 million and an 11.2 percent decline in ad pages to 11.2 percent.

Conde Nast Portfolio reported a 48.8 percent drop in ad revenue to $4.1 million for the quarter. Its ad pages fell 60 percent to 66.05. But the publication cut the number of issues it’s now printing.

See all of the data here.